Redemption
by fika1603
Summary: Restoring your family name after the War is never easy, as Draco Malfoy discovers. But with a new friend found, perhaps the road could be smoother? Based on events in DH and beyond. R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi guys,**

**Here's the first of three parts! I'm just basing off this chapter on the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, so while some may tally with the book, some may not, but I hope you guys won't mind it so much?**

**Do have a read, and do review! (:**

**Regards,**

**Fika1603**

* * *

"She's still not speaking! Throw her back in!" a gruff voice spat.

A hand grabbed her roughly and shoved her into the small space they called her cell. She winced slightly as she found her shoulder blade crashed against the wall. She scowled at the door that slammed after her, hurling mental abuses at her captors.

She held up her wrist in the wan moonlight streaming through the tiny pocket of a window high up on the wall. The red gashes spelling out Mudblood on it had healed, but they were meant to remain there for life. Normal girls would've considered it some form of physical stigma; she would much prefer to view them as battle scars. Except that this was an unfair fight, defenceless captives against much stronger captors armed with wands.

She leaned her head back against the cool wall and sighed. In all honesty she's tired of it all, even though she was starting to get immune to it. But they had found her brain too precious to just be let go without fruitless attempts at manipulation.

Her eyes caught sight of the edges of the moon in the sky outside. Crouching low, she attempted to get a better glimpse of it from where she was. The crescent moon had evolved into a full moon. Was that how long she's been kept here? Her brows furrowed as she thought back to her friends. Ever since they were captured and herded to be stowed away in the Manor, she hadn't seen them around at all. She bit her lip in anxiety. Surely if she had survived this long, they must be safe as well? Perhaps battered and bruised, but alive nonetheless.

Also not for the first time throughout the duration that she was kept, she scurried over to a far corner of her cell, away from possible peering angles from the peephole at the door. Carefully she removed a brick and peered into the small opening. It was pitch dark; perhaps the other side was sealed up. Nevertheless, she stuck her hand in and groped about, feeling for anything apart from the cold clammy feel of concrete. Her fingers brushed against something that felt like parchment, and then against something familiarly thin and long. When she swiped her hand back out, indeed a rolled piece of parchment fell onto her lap, as well as…

"My wand!" she gasped in a hushed voice. After peering nervously at the peephole of the door to ascertain that no Death Eaters was lurking about outside, she held up the piece of wood in the moonlight. Indeed it was her wand, 10 ¾ inches of vine wood. It took all her self-control to not point it at the door, blast it open and escape. Instead, she unravelled the scroll of parchment:

_I've got you your wand back but DON'T use it just as yet. I'll tell you when you can do so. Just keep it safe for now. Your friends are fine._

The note was unsigned, like many other notes passed to her in the same manner before this. They were also hasty scribbles, making it hard to really recognize the handwriting especially in the faint light she was lucky to have. Regardless, she made a mental note to thank her companion even as she contemplated on how best to have the wand on her but keep it concealed.

She clutched her wand close to her, sinking in the comfort of familiarity and strength the stick seemed to emanate. She closed her eyes as she pictured the days back in Hogwarts, with Harry and Ron. Such carefree days, even if they got into more than their fair share of trouble. Such wonderful times…

XO XO XO XO

She awoke to a persistent, rough shake of her shoulders. Alarmed, she immediately clutched her wand and moved to disarm but a strong hand gripped her hand before she could do so and a voice hissed, "Quiet! Do you want us to get caught?"

A lit wand held up to her face revealed to her the owner of the voice, and she stared after him in disbelief, "Malfoy!"

"Shh!" he told her in a rather annoyed fashion. He spoke in such a quiet voice she had to bring herself to lean in to hear what was being said, "Listen, just keep your mouth shut and follow me."

"I refuse! What are you planning to do to me?" she hissed back suspiciously.

Even in the little light in the cell, she swore she could see the young man in front of her roll his grey eyes. "I'm not going to do anything towards you!" he whispered back in exasperation. "Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror, and then looked at me? You're not my type!" He tugged her hand that he had been gripping since just now to get her to her feet. "Come on!"

Hermione shook his grip aside. "No!" she said obstinately, but making an effort to keep her voice low. She threateningly pointed her wand at him. "Unless you tell me what you intend to do, I won't hesitate to-to kill you."

Draco Malfoy snorted as he pocketed his wand. "You'd think you'd be a teeny bit more grateful, don't you, with me helping you get your wand and all."

Hermione's eyes widened. "All this time, the person sending me messages through the brick wall was you?" Her eyes then quickly narrowed at him. "If you want to drag me out to duel to die with that lunatic aunt of yours, just tell me straight. I'm used to her torturing and taunting. I'm not afraid of her."

"Are you stupid?" Draco scowled at her, his eyes darting towards her pointed wand once in a while. "Aunt Bella has nothing to do with this." He added darkly, "And she better not catch wind of this."

Hermione kept her wand on him as she ordered, "Last chance. Explain yourself, Malfoy."

Draco looked at her incredulously. "Even if you kill me, what are you hoping to achieve? Fly out of this little jail free like a bird, swoop in to save those losers of friends of yours and Apparate out of here?" he taunted her sardonically. "It'll be pointless, no one can Apparate in or out of the Manor now. Mudblood, I thought you'd have more sense than that."

"Stop calling me that-that filthy word!" Hermione shot back furiously. By now, the tip of her wand was igniting.

"I will call you what I wish," Draco remarked coldly. By now he had whipped his wand out and was pointing it too at Hermione. "Listen to me, Granger. I'm going to get you out of here, you're going to get those losers out of my cellar and get the hell out of my Manor, do you understand?"

"No, I don't!" Hermione sounded vehemently confused and suspicious of his words. "Levi-"

She barely had a chance to complete her spell, because by then Draco had successfully disarmed her with a wordless flick of his wand. Her wand clattered to a far corner of the miniscule room. She would've bent down to search and pick it up to throw a counter-spell at him, if not for the fact his wand was directly and closely pointed at her.

"I'm trying to save your arse, Mudblood," he warned her in his steady voice. "If I have things my way I would've just leave you to rot in here."

"Then why bother?"Hermione spat back.

"Because, this is my house. And the last thing I want is to have the rotting skeleton of a Mudblood in one of my rooms." He maintained his wand on her as he told her emotionlessly, "Now get up." When Hermione still hesitated, he added on softly, "I'm not impartial to using the Imperium Curse, if you must know. Especially on filthy Mud-"

Hermione shot to her feet by herself, snarling as she scurried to pick up her fallen wand, "I'll get back on my feet by myself!"

Draco smirked. "Good girl." Avoiding Hermione's livid glare, he crept over to her cell's door and peered out of the peephole. Surreptitiously, he opened the door slowly, allowing the dim lighting from the corridor to filter into the cell. He stuck his head out, glanced about to his left and right before pulling his head back in and shutting the door. He glanced back to Hermione, looked at her for a moment and frowned.

"What?" Hermione asked irritably.

"You look like a wreck," he commented. Hermione detected the slightest tinge of guilt in his voice.

"When you're taken out to have the Cruciatus curse on you and knives cutting into your skin on a daily basis, you tend to look like that," she responded curtly. "You can ask your dear Aunt Bellatrix to demonstrate on you."

Draco's lips curled into distaste at her words. "I don't give a damn how you look like, beaver. Faint."

"What?"

"Pretend to faint," Draco ordered her impatiently. Hermione crashed to the floor. "When I tell you to do so."

Scowling, Hermione sat up. "Will you care to share what your ingenious furtive plan is, Malfoy?"

He knelt before her, jabbing his wand at her forehead. "You pretend to faint while I carry you out on the pretence of 'for fun in my room'. Is that a simple enough explanation for you, Mudblood?" At Hermione's horrified look, he added on exasperatedly, "I'm NOT going to do anything to you! Which part of 'pretence' didn't you understand?"

"If you ever dare to do anything to me, I'll hex you with irrecoverable warts," Hermione warned him.

"Not a chance, Mudblood," Draco promised. Without warning he scooped her up in his arms. At Hermione's reflex protest, he told her, "Now's a good time to pretend to faint."

Hermione pressed her eyes shut, but her fainting act must have been greatly unnatural, because Draco growled, "Faint like a woman, you Mudblood. Stop being so stiff." Hermione resisted the urge to jump up and hex him; instead, she duly complied and tried to make her body as limp as possible. Unfortunately, pretending to be a weak unmoving object in Draco Malfoy's arms with eyes closed only served to worsen the awareness that she was being whisked away by Malfoy Manor's young master to his room. Hermione resisted a squirm at the very prospect of it.

They seemed to have gotten past the corridor almost effortlessly, until they set foot on the second floor of the manor where Draco was greeted by a scratchy, gruff voice asking him where he was carrying their prisoner. Hermione tensed as Draco snickered, "There's better ways to extract information from her, perhaps. Ought to be fun."

The scratchy voice let out a hoarse laugh as he guffawed and clapped his hand on Draco's shoulder, "Never thought you'd like those kind of stuff eh, Malfoy? Anyway," The voice must have leaned in, because by now his voice was a whisper, "Once you're done with her, pass her to me, won't you? Such a pretty thing…"

Hermione prepared herself to flinch; she could sense the owner of the voice reaching out to touch her face. But she heard the sound of a hand being blocked, and Draco responded coldly before he walked away, "I'm afraid not, Avery. I'm not particularly a fan of sharing my possessions with people I don't particularly like."

The rest of their journey down the corridor went uninterrupted, until Draco paused halfway. Hermione heard the sound of a door flung open, and then shut. Without warning, she fell with a thud on a floor, accompanied with a groan from Draco, "Good Merlin, how heavy are you Mudblood?"

"No one asked you to carry me," Hermione fired a rejoinder, wincing as she got up.

"I'm sure you'd have much preferred me to tie a cord to your neck and drag you down the hall in full view of everyone," Draco replied sincerely. He waved his wand at his door and it clicked shut while a translucent veil weaved itself over it. Another flick of his wand got a chair away from the study table that mowed itself under Hermione, who ended up sitting on it with the movement. "Have a seat."

"There's not much choice is there," Hermione said scathingly even as she glared at him. "So what now?"

Draco leaned against one of the pillars of his massive four-poster bed. Hermione stole jealous glances at his freshly laundered sheets, with the luxurious black and silver silk hangings. She couldn't remember the last time she could sleep with the comfort of a pillow, even. Draco caught sight of her greedily eyeing his bed, and he said loudly, causing Hermione to jump, "Why are you staring at my bed?"

Hermione flushed as she said heatedly, "I'm not! I was just thinking…" Her voice descended into a mumble, "I was just thinking that I haven't slept in a bed for ages."

Draco studied her quietly. She did look like a mess, he thought. Her face was grimy, with cuts on her lips and bruises here and there. Her bushy hair was dishevelled beyond description. For a split second he wondered if he were to run his hands through it, he would come across spiders and the likes. Sighing, he flicked his wand to a door on the left side of the room, which revealed itself to be a spacious bathroom the size of his room itself. Draco gestured towards it, "Go on."

"Why are you so generous?" Hermione eyed him carefully.

Draco snorted. "Because I don't want you to stink up my room." He jerked his head towards his bed. "You're welcome to use the bed too."

Hermione must still be feeling suspicious of his intentions, because she quickly said "No thank you" before running off into the bathroom. Draco wondered if she locked the door resoundingly on purpose to tell him to keep out. While Hermione was whiling away in the bathroom, Draco threw open his wardrobe door and browsed through the clothes in it. Granted, most of them were his, but he doubted that Hermione would be able to run about in his mother's dresses. He picked out an old shirt and slacks and left them outside the door to the bathroom, making it a point to tell her through the bathroom door. By the time he sat back on the edge of his bed, those clothes were gone, and soon Hermione emerged from the bathroom dressed in them. Draco kept his honest favourable opinions to himself and instead said, "At least you look more human now" which invariably earned him a death glare from Hermione.

He pretended not to see it as he continued, "Your friends are all in the cellar. With Mr Ollivander-"

"Mr Ollivander?" Hermione gasped. "You mean he's been kept by you guys all along!"

"-so the moment you get them out, run straight out from this Manor," Draco finished. His grey eyes narrowed at her. "Have you been listening?"

"How?"

"I'll sneak you down into the cellar," Draco informed her. "I'll distract those guarding it… I'll think of something. Rush in, save your friends and run straight out."

"But won't we be stopped by your fellow friends?" Hermione's words might as well be laced with venom. "And my friends will be wandless. It sounds more like you're sending all of us to our deaths."

"Look, I can't possibly steal every single wand confiscated from you lot!" Drace said angrily. "You'll have a wand, won't you? Use a Summoning Charm, then! Aunt Bella would've been holding on to some of your wands."

"How do I know that this isn't some kind of trap you and your precious Aunt Bella cooked up?" Hermione shot back.

"Because we have different views on what to do with your lot and those blood-traitors," Draco said testily. "Aunt Bella's more interested in keeping herself to be in the Dark Lord's good books, though it's blatant to anyone within sight we've lost hope of ever being in them again." He let out a short, dark laugh before continuing quietly, "I just want my family and my house back."

"Oh, not wanting to serve your Dark Lord anymore, are you?" Hermione taunted.

The glare that Draco gave her made Hermione wished she had stayed quiet. She half-expected, half-waited for the young blond boy in front of her to spring a Tongue-Tying Spell on her, or inflict the Cruciatus on her. He did neither. He merely turned on his heels and headed for the door, saying over his shoulder, "Looks like you're alive enough to make it out of here. Let's go."

"Do I have to pretend to faint again?" Hermione asked sarcastically as she followed after him.

"No, but pretend to cry and look miserable," Draco muttered as he put her hands behind her back and looped them in a weak grip, pushing her to walk closely in front of him. "Listen, I have a feeling you're going be taunted down the hallway. No matter what they say or what I do, don't retaliate. Just cry and look miserably exhausted." A figure loomed into view a few feet away from them. "Starting from now."

They neared a scraggly figure who called out to them with a familiar scratchy voice, which Hermione was now certain belonged to Avery, Draco's fellow Death-Eater who had appraised him earlier. Avery grinned maliciously at them as he addressed Draco, "So how was the Mudblood? She looks clean."

Draco smirked as he responded, "She liked it better in the bath. Didn't you, Mudblood?"

With that, he promptly steered her away before Avery had any chance to leer further. He kept his grip on until they reached her cell, where he practically shoved her away to the side as if touching her was tantamount to touching live horned slugs. Hermione took the chance to screech at him, "Repulsive!"

"It was just an act," Draco muttered, opening and then slamming close her cell door. He waited a beat, then turned to her, jerking his head towards the end of the deserted corridor. "Come on, we need to keep a move on."

"To where?" Hermione asked pointedly. "As far as I can see, it's just a dead end."

Draco said nothing as he pressed his left forearm to a section of the wall. Soon, the wall dissolved itself to reveal another passageway. "You'd do better than to question me about my own house," he said. He hesitated before adding, "Though this doorway is new."

Before he could hurry into it, Hermione stopped him. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Haven't I told you?"

"Yes, but it doesn't answer my question," Hermione persisted.

The blond Death Eater looked like he was about to answer, but just abruptly decided against it and told her before hurrying into the passageway, "There's not much time. Get a move on."

Frustrated, Hermione huffed after him but maintained the silence until they came face to face with an old silver statue at the end of the passageway. To the left was another flight of stairs leading down into darkness.

"The cellar," Draco said quietly, reading her thoughts as she peered curiously at him. "Your friends are in there, but I reckon at least two of my lot are guarding it."

"Why do you keep saying 'my lot', 'your lot'? For Merlin's sake, Draco, we're both on the same side now, aren't we?"

Draco snorted at her words but deigned to directly answer it. "Okay, listen. On the count of three, I want you to throw a Stunning Spell at anywhere but me. I'm going to pretend to be Stunned – Listen to me! I'm going to pretend to be Stunned. Make sure you hide behind the statue, wait for the guards to come up and then Stun them. When they're done, rush in, save your friends and get out." When Hermione remained staring at him trying to digest his plan, he snarled, "What are you waiting for?"

Almost as if on reflex, Hermione blurted out, "Stupefy!" and sent a red jet of light bouncing into a wall, which both she and Draco cleverly ducked to evade. They heard the sound of feet thumping against the wood of the stairs leading to the cellar, and Hermione scurried to hide in the shadows of the towering statue while Draco lay crumpled on the floor.

True enough, two Death Eaters rushed up to where they were and upon seeing a supposedly Stunned Draco Malfoy, went on the alert. Immediately Hermione jumped out from behind the statue, sending two consecutive Stunning Spells before any of the two had a chance to fire any against her. When both men were down, Draco got to his feet, directed 'Petrificius Totalus' at them for good measure before almost hauling Hermione down the steps to the cellar.

Sensing the urgency of the situation, Hermione rapidly unlocked the door. The moment the cellar-dwellers saw her, they all rushed to hug her and asked about her condition. Hermione was just about to respond to them when Draco Malfoy emerged at the door telling them curtly to hurry up.

"What's the git doing here?" Ron Weasley whispered as he hurried with Hermione up the stairs, with Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas, Griphook the Goblin and Mr Ollivander the Wandmaker trailing behind them.

"He kind of saved us," Hermione whispered back, her eyes on Draco's back, which suddenly halted once they exited the passageway. She asked him in a whisper, "What's wrong?"

She could see Draco take a deep breath before he turned around to face them. He seemed to pretend that the other captives weren't present as he regarded Hermione directly, "There'll be a struggle. I'm going to have to fight you later, but just barely. Summon the wands from Aunt Bellatrix, fight your way around and run straight out the door to the gate." This time round he eyed all of them carefully, reserving a special sneer for Ron, "Make sure you all get out of my house alive."

"We'll keep those words in mind, Malfoy," Ron said loudly, shooting him a look of equal contempt.

Draco let a ghost of a smirk pass his features, before suddenly running down the corridor to the main hall, hollering, "They've escaped! The captives! They've escaped!"

Ron's eyes widened in horror and disbelief as he fumed, "That little bastard! Hermione, make sure you turn him into a ferret later on!"

"There's no need to!" Hermione replied, annoyed. She sped down the corridor, wand held out. "Hurry! Come on! We need to get to the gate!"

"How do you know we can trust Malfoy?" Potter shouted at her.

"You don't have to trust him, just trust me!" Hermione bristled. She flicked her wand to either side of the corridor, "Impedimenta!"

The same process occurred along the hallway, all six of them running while Hermione sent defence spells to the left and right to clear their way. It seemed that their route to the Malfoys' front gate was relatively unhindered, until they reached the threshold of the main hall of the Manor. Bellatrix Lestrange led the opposing pack, who all had their wands held out in front of them, including Draco Malfoy.

"Going somewhere?" Bellatrix asked sweetly.

"Yes," Hermione responded quickly.

"I don't think so. " Bellatrix shouted out "Expelliarmus!" at the same time Hermione dodged and shouted, "Accio wands!"

True enough, four other wands slipped out from Bellatrix's clothes and landed in the hands of their respective owners, who immediately began to hurl Stunning Spells, curses, hexes and anything they could use as defence spells, even as they continued to make their way downwards towards the front door. Luna and Dean defended well against a persistent array of curses even as they sought to protect Griphook and Mr Ollivander. Harry, Ron and Hermione found themselves preoccupied to even forge their way forward, dispelling attacks without rest as they pressed their backs against one another.

Draco, supposedly battling Harry, noticed that his aunt was caught up in the glee of being able to throw spells and curses at such alarming and carefree speed. He timely ducked a curse from Harry and surreptitiously pointed his wand to the chandelier. The few seconds of horror taken by his fellow Death Eaters to gape at the falling chandelier was enough to not only lure them shooting away from the trio, but also for the captives to dash over to the other side to rejoin the other four and escape through the front door.

"Get them!" Bellatrix screeched, but by then Draco had already bolted out the door to run after the sextet. Along the way he tossed a space-expanding barrier spell behind him to give the six people in front of him time to make it to the front gate.

Of course, he had to endure dodging and repelling defence spells from Ron, Harry, Luna and Dean along the way. Once they reached the metal spires of Malfoy Manor, they tried to walk through it as easily as they passed through it when they were hauled in, but to no avail.

"That won't work! Aunt Bellatrix's sealed it," Draco said hastily the moment he finally caught up with them. He came face to face with four wands fiercely pointed at him. His eyes darted over to Hermione. "Drop the wands. I'm not going to do anything."

"Oh yeah? Then what was it you did just now, eh? Ratted us out on that crazy aunt of yours, didn't you?" Ron challenged furiously.

"Shut it, Weasley," Draco replied coolly. "Drop your wand."

"Ron, drop it," Hermione interjected sharply. "Drop it!" Ron relented. The others exchanged unsure glances, but lowered their wands anyway. She then turned to face Draco, equally furious. "You're going to tell us right now how to get out of here or the six of us will hex you to the next century."

Draco scowled. He knelt down at the hedges beside the gate and held his wand to his ring. Harry vaguely recognized the Malfoy family crest engraved on it. He was about to haul Draco up to his feet to demand what he was doing, when a pair of albino peacocks strutted towards Draco from nowhere. Draco muttered something to them before he got up and faced the six of them.

"Just follow them, they'll show you the opening out from here," Draco said. "The moment you're outside, Apparate immediately." He glanced behind him. "The barrier's not going to hold on much longer. They've probably realised it. Hurry up and get lost from my property."

"Well, here's to getting lost!" Ron griped as he threw a punch to Draco's face.

"Ron! What are you doing!" Hermione stared in horror at him. She immediately rushed to Draco's side, asking him kindly, "Are you alright? I'm really sorry about Ron, he's just -"

Draco flicked her hand away as he clutched his jaw. "Get lost. Now."

Hermione hesitated. "Aren't you coming with us?"

"Coming with us?" Ron echoed incredulously. "Hermione, have you gone nutters? He almost had us killed!"

"Because he was trying to save us!" Hermione replied back heatedly.

Draco turned to face Harry, "Go. Now."

Harry nodded, and he promptly attempted to steer the bickering Hermione and Ron towards the opening where the albino peacocks were standing by at. Luna, Dean, Griphook and Mr Ollivander were already taking turns to climb out through the enchanted hedge. Hermione, meanwhile, was trying to wrest her arm from Harry's hold as she kept glancing back towards Draco.

"We're bringing him along!" she said stubbornly. "We can't just leave him here! They'll kill him!"

"He's got his Death Eater parents here, Hermione!" Ron shot back. "Nothing will happen to hi – Ahhh!"

Ron's complaints were cut short as he was shoved out through the hedge by Harry. Hermione looked pleadingly at Harry as she too was shoved out through the hedge. That left Harry face-to-face alone with Draco, and the Chosen One wasted no time in asking his nemesis, "Why are you helping us?"

"Unlike you, Potter, I have a family," Draco answered simply.

Harry wasn't the least affronted by the slight in Draco's words. He seemed genuine when he extended Hermione's offer to Draco, "Come with us, Malfoy. There are people who can protect you and your family."

"He'll find you in no time," Draco said matter-of-factly, lifting up the sleeve on his left arm to reveal the Dark Mark. "And I don't need help in protecting my family."

With that, he roughly pushed Harry out through the hedge, backtracked and for the second time of the day, playacted as if he was Stunned, just in time for the rest of the residents of Malfoy Manor to catch up with him, Narcissa's wails at the sight of her supposedly unconscious son drowned out Bellatrix's enraged manic scream at the fact that all their captives had managed to escape.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you for the review! (:**  
**I am tempted to break free from the initial 3-part fic idea now tbh..**

**Anyway, here's Chapter 2 and I hope you guys like it too! Read & review please, thank you! (:**

**- fika1603**

* * *

The Hogwarts grounds was barely recognizable. Bodies – mostly of the Death Eaters – were littered along the walkway to the entrance. The Great Hall too bore visible damages. A part of the wall had caved in; the windows were completely blown, and rows and rows of wizards and witches found themselves sprawled exhausted on the floor, each bearing wounds, injuries and the after-effects of curses. Some of them had started to use healing spells on the persons next to them. But being just fresh from ending a war, no one really had energy enough to summon the conviction to execute series of successful healing spells.

The Weasleys, Harry and Hermione were gathered around the lifeless shells of the fallen: Fred, Tonks, Lupin, Moody. It was too much losses gone in a single night; it was much more worse when the fallen were family. Nearly everyone there was distraught and wracked in tears. Harry himself, holding an uncontrollably sobbing Ginny, had silent tears running down his face. Hermione wanted so much to comfort Ron, to give a reassuring hug to all of them, to just break down in tears freely. But all she could feel were a large lump in her throat, and stinging tears in her eyes that threaten to fall but couldn't. She even couldn't bring herself to move an inch closer towards Ron and his family, and instead looked away, feeling greatly ashamed by her incapacity to react emotionally.

She watched as Mr Weasley braved himself to carry Fred out of the Great Hall while she stood rooted to where she was, and it was only with the sight of Mr and Mrs Weasley's diminishing frame did she finally collapsed and broke into tears. She sensed a presence next to her, and she glanced up through her tears to see a battered Neville Longbottom and a harried-looking Professor McGonagall peering down miserably at her.

Sinking his hands into his pocket, Neville held out a handkerchief for her. He said gently, "Here, you can have it, Hermione."

Hermione took it, but looked around. "Ron… where's Ron? And Harry?"

"Mr Potter is with Mr Weasley now, Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall cut in, trying her best to sound as collected as she could, but both her students could detect a faint tremor in her voice. "I have asked Mr Potter to… escort Mr Weasley out of the Hall with his family to… see to the necessary arrangements."

Hermione clambered to her feet clumsily, wiping her eyes furiously with Neville's handkerchief. "I should go after them now," she said anxiously. "They can't be far off."

"About that, Miss Granger…" Professor McGonagall hesitated. She gave Neville a knowing look. "Mr Potter has asked me if it was possible for you to stay behind, to help Mr Longbottom with aiding the injured."

"Stay behind?" Hermione echoed weakly. "But… but… Ron's brother just…" She blinked back her tears hard several times, trying to make sense of Harry's request. He knew how much she cared for the Weasleys; in fact, she loved them as much as he did. But now when something this huge had happened, she was sidelined? Wasn't she part of the family too?

Professor McGonagall seemed to read Hermione's thoughts flitting across her face, and she said soothingly, "Miss Granger, perhaps there are some matters which Mr Weasley would feel more comfortable revealing to Mr Potter. Just like you would with Miss Weasley."

Hermione nodded numbly. Professor McGonagall placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, looked kindly at her momentarily before turning to an uncertain-looking Neville, "Mr Longbottom, if you'd please…?"

"Ye-yes, Professor McGonagall," he responded bravely. Professor McGonagall gave him a grateful but terse smile before she hurried away to check on the others. Neville edged closer to Hermione and said hesitantly, " 'Mione? If you, if you're not up to it…"

"No," Hermione shook her head, forcing a smile to put Neville's worries at ease. "It's okay, Neville." She sucked in a lungful of air and glanced around quickly before whispering, "Harry's right. Look at them, Neville. So… so many injured." Her eyes scanned the Great Hall again, searching for anyone in lime green robes that looked like they might be from St Mungo's. "And the Healers still aren't here yet…"

Neville nodded nervously. "Where should we start, Hermione?"

Hermione gestured to a dark-haired boy propped up against a wall to their right. They recognized his Hogwarts school uniform, and upon getting closer, noticed that a long laceration ran down his entire left arm, with a few of his fingers broken. His broken wand laid beside him, dragon's heartstring poking out from the crack. The boy glanced up and gave them a cheery smile. "Hey Granger, Longbottom."

They responded with a friendly smile to the Hufflepuff student, even as they knelt down to examine his injuries. The boy chuckled, "Doesn't look too bad, eh?" He grimaced. "Except it hurts when I laugh."

Hermione had to smile at his words even as she held up her wand over his arm and performed a healing spell. Neville had taken out a jar that looked suspiciously from Madam Pomfrey's stash in the hospital wing and was spooning out a portion for the boy.

"Madam Pomfrey gave some to me," Neville defended himself at Hermione's enquiring look, confirming her suspicions.

While Hermione and Neville tended to their injured schoolmates, a few feet away from them, perfectly ignored by everyone around, the Malfoys were huddled together, a bundle of black topped with light platinum hair. Draco and his mother were tightly hugging each other, though it was hard to tell who was crying harder or whether they were crying out of relief, fear or regret. Countlessly, Narcissa planted kisses on her son's face through her tears, whispering "Draco… My Draco" over and over again. Meanwhile, Draco had his face buried in his mother's shoulder, his own shoulders shuddering with sobs as he clutched her closer. They had been so close to losing each other just moments ago. A terrified Draco had given in to hers and Lucius's pleading looks to cross over to take on the side of the Death Eaters and Voldemort on the grounds of Hogwarts, if only to not be apart from his family more than out of genuine desire to re-join the fold. But after noticing how stricken her son was to just be standing behind the Dark Lord, Narcissa had slyly urged Draco to bolt back to his schoolmates on the other side, even if that had meant risking the livid look on the displeased face of the Dark Lord. Even if the rest of the school had not reacted in time to collectively dispel Voldemort's threatening Avada Kedavra curse at Draco – the Potter boy in particular grabbing Draco to the side so the green jet barely missed Draco by an inch - a firm squeeze of her hand by Lucius had assured her that they would be willing to throw themselves in between the curse and their son the next time Voldemort attempt it on their son. Of course, once the battle started, being particularly wandless, neither of them actually took part in the battle; the moment it started, she and Lucius frantically searched for Draco and the three of them huddled hidden somewhere free from the crossfires of war in the space of the Great Hall.

Narcissa felt a warm hand on her shoulder, and as she leaned in on her husband's chest, she quietly raised a very pertinent question, "Lucius, what's going to happen to us?" She held her son to her as she asked more desperately, glancing up to gaze into her husband's face with terrified, teary eyes, "What's going to happen to Draco? Lucius, he's still just a boy!"

For once, Lucius Malfoy found himself unable to eke a response to his wife, not even to dispel her worries with his usual comforting words. At his silence, Narcissa simply looked away and hugged Draco more tightly, unable to shake off her resigned sobs.

"I'm sorry," she told her son shakily. "Draco, I'm so sorry…"

Lucius clutched his son's shoulders, and said rather desperately as if he remembered something, "Draco, you rejoined them!" He gently pried Draco away from Narcissa's arms as he almost pleaded with his son, "Can't you help us, Draco? Me and your mother? Tell them we're with you!"

Draco hung his head as he sought to shield his tears from his father. "Fa-father, I-I don't know…"

"You must, Draco! You must!"

"I-I don't know if-"

"You must!"

"Lucius, leave him!" Narcissa cried out, placing a restraining hand on her husband's arms. She noticed that his face was ashen and he was shaking badly, but knew better than to comment on it outwardly. "As long as they let him go, I'm fine with it."

"But he can save us, Cissy!" Lucius insisted. He looked on desperately at his son. "All he has to do is to say that we have already decided on changing sides, even before-"

A stern shake of the head by Narcissa caused Lucius's words to falter, and he looked away, fuming silently inside. Narcissa turned to face her son, and cupped his tear-streaked face reassuringly. "Nothing will happen to you, Draco," she promised. "You have no part in this."

"But I brought them in from the start!" Draco argued. His eyes landed on his mother's pleadingly. "Mother…"

"You have no part in this, Draco," Narcissa repeated herself more firmly. "It's just your father and me. Just –" Draco rescinded on his attempt to argue again. "Your father and me."

"But that's not fair," Draco whispered hoarsely. "Mother, you're not Marked. You just followed along with me and Father…"

"But I made the choice to do so," Narcissa insisted.

"So did I! I was chosen!"

"You were chosen to fail and to die in his hands!" Narcissa responded more harshly than she expected. She gripped her son's shoulders and stared into his eyes, as if intending to ensure that every single word she was going to say would be drilled into his mind. "You were nothing more than a tool for him, Draco. He knew that nothing would hurt your father more than to see you dead in his hands." She snapped her head towards her husband. "Isn't that the case, Lucius?"

Lucius barely looked at the mother and son as he said in a resigned tone, "Yes... Draco, listen to your mother."

Draco was about to argue again when a pair of familiar Ministry of Magic officials neared the family and asked after them. Lucius recognized them from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He hesitated momentarily, but as Narcissa stood up and touched his wrist lightly, he relented, "Very well."

"Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, on behalf of the Aurors Headquarters, Ministry of Magic's Department of Magical Law Enforcement, you are charged with being complicit to Death Eater activities and abetting harmful practices of Dark wizardry," one of the officials rattled off emotionlessly. "If you could please follow us."

"Could we have a minute with our son?" Narcissa pleaded, her blue eyes gazing at the Aurors beseechingly.

The Aurors exchanged looks, before one of them begrudgingly acceded to her request and stepped back a little to allow the Malfoys to have their private space. Draco was eyeing his parents frantically, while Lucius and Narcissa worked to calm him down.

"Potter!" Draco urged his mother. "Mother, you saved Potter's life! Tell them!" He turned to glare furiously at the Aurors. "My mother saved Potter! If she hadn't told the Dark Lord that he was de- "

"Draco," Narcissa interjected softly, clutching his hand tightly as she did so. "Draco, that's enough."

"No it's not," he wept. "Mother- "

"Draco, listen to me," Lucius interrupted. "You're the sole heir of the Malfoy family. Even if your mother and I are to be…punished, you have to carry on for the family. Don't whimper, Draco. You have to do it."

The sound of the Aurors' loudly clearing their throats signalled to the Malfoys that their one minute was up. Narcissa placed a long kiss on her son's forehead before trailing after her husband and the Aurors out of the Great Hall, carefully avoiding resentful glares from some of the people they passed by in it. They passed by too Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom who were attempting to patch up Dean Thomas's broken nose. The Malfoys barely gave them a glance, but Hermione did look up and stared after them worriedly.

Dean snorted at their retreating figure. "Serves them right. There's no way they can squirm their way out now. Where's that son of theirs? Shouldn't he be going along with them?"

Hermione frowned. "I wonder too…" She turned to Neville. "Neville, I'm sorry, but could you… while I try to look for Draco..?"

"Yeah, sure," Neville chimed in, knocking over his remedy jar as he did so. His face went pink. "Oh no…"

Dean sighed as he waved his wand to get the spilled ingredients back into the jar. "It's okay, Hermione," he reassured her. "I'll help Neville out. My nose feels fine, anyway."

"I'll come back soon," she promised before scurrying off.

With the mess of people in the Great Hall, it was an arduous task in itself trying to look for any individual. Nevertheless, Hermione waded through the crowd until she came across a shuddering black heap with matted platinum hair. She stepped towards him cautiously and as quietly as possible until she was directly beside him. Placing a hand on the shaking shoulder, she addressed him, "Draco?"

"Mudblood," he muttered, not looking up. "I mean, Granger. What are you still doing here?"

"I'm helping Neville treat the injured," she replied carefully. "You -"

"I'm not injured," Draco proclaimed harshly. "Sod off."

"I-I saw your parents. Are you… are you okay?"

"That's none of your business," Draco replied, getting up and adjusting his coat. He still kept his eyes downwards, avoiding her gaze. "Why don't you tarry back to the Weasleys'?" This time, he did glance at Hermione from the corner of his eyes, only to see her face fell. Shifting uneasily, he mumbled, "Forget my question. Anyway, there's tons of people to heal. Go and do your job. I'm going home."

"Where are you going?" At Draco's confused look, she added on, "Isn't Hogwarts your home? Isn't that why you ran back to join us? Won't you help us heal your fellow schoolmates, then?"

He snorted. "I doubt they'll let me."

"Do it with me." Hermione insisted stubbornly. "They can't say anything that way."

"Why are you so intent on getting me to heal these people?" Draco finally asked, annoyed.

"Don't you want to save your parents?" Hermione asked back calmly. "And your family name?" At his surprised look, she shrugged. "Even for Muggles, it's the same concern with the prestige of the family name. It's not much different from you Pureblood elites."

Draco scowled at her words, but that did not stop him from thinking back to the last words his father said to him. It was true he was the sole Malfoy heir. And now that he reflected back on it, perhaps it was probably true that he escaped detention by the Aurors for his double-take before the Battle started by rejoining his schoolmates against the Death Eaters. Perhaps if he could make an attempt, no matter how small, to scrub away the grime now stuck to his family name…

"Make sure you do it with me," he said finally.

"Thank you, Draco," Hermione actually sounded relieved at his decision. She glanced behind her to where she could see Dean and Neville having a mini scuffle while tending to a rather impatient Slytherin victim; once again Neville had spilled the contents of the jar and Dean was losing patience at having to pick up and stash the remedy back into the jar.

"I see now why you asked me for help," Draco added on listlessly as he made his way over towards them. "If you have such morons to help you heal people."

The scuffle almost immediately died out the moment he reached them. Dean wordlessly jammed the remedy back into the jar, nudged Neville and the both of them got up to leave. Their Slytherin patient glanced away from Draco, but said nothing.

Draco attempted to sound as cordial as possible, "You injured anywhere?"

"Yeah, my leg," the Slytherin student answered coolly. "But it's not in tremendous pain or anything so you can go and heal some other doofus more in need of your aid."

Draco ignored him as he placed the tip of his wand on the student's leg. "You have a torn tendon," Draco remarked quizzically. "How did you even get that during battle?"

"There was a physical scuffle with some of the Death Eaters," the student scowled. "Oh I forgot, you're too chicken to even take sides during battle and instead cower in fear in some corner with your parents. I think I saw your parents being escorted out by Aurors, Malfoy. Second term in Azkaban for your old man?"

Draco glowered, but said nothing as he set out to heal the laceration.

"Oh what? The Slytherin Prince lost all his swagger?" the student snickered. "You know what, Malfoy. You're a coward. I'm sure your Dark Lord must have been very disappointed to have a selfish coward like you and your father for Death Eaters. Seems like you all were lucky to be left alive."

Without warning, Draco inflamed the student's leg with the tip of his wand. While the student was yelping and hurling abuses at him, Draco swiftly walked away. Hermione stared after him in horror, "Draco!" She hurriedly turned to the Slytherin student, hastily apologised and got Neville to jog back to slap liberal amounts of the remedy onto the burn. Hermione got a painful howl as a way of a thank you from the student. Once again, Hermione reiterated her apology before running after Draco.

"Malfoy!" she shouted, finally catching up with him at the stairs leading towards the Slytherin dungeons. "Malfoy, you turd! What did you think you were doing?"

The blond boy gave her a cool look as he turned around to face her. "I told you they'd be an ungrateful lot," he said matter-of-factly. "I'm actually sorry I bothered. They can all rot down there in the Hall."

"They're your friends!" Hermione was practically screaming at him, tears of fury reflected in her eyes.

"I don't have friends," Draco commented contritely. "Stop deluding yourself."

"Then you're just going to have to start making friends!" Hermione snapped at him. She pressed her eyes shut, took a deep breath before speaking again in a more calm manner, "Draco, everyone saw you run back to us. There is no reason for them to hate you, or for them to not want to be your friends."

"Oh really, then what was that git Crowley doing just now?" Draco snarled back. "Extending a hand of friendship? Spare me your Gryffindor bull, Mudblood."

Hermione flushed. "Well, maybe he's disliked you for a very long time. You have a wonderful personality after all," she replied angrily. "And stop calling me Mudblood! I have a name! I'm not just some…some scum on the street! I thought the War would've changed you, but apparently not!"

Surprisingly, Draco fell silent as he stared at her as if she had just sprouted Thestral wings on her back. Hermione haughtily glared back at him, even though in all honesty she was still trembling with anger and nervousness after her recent verbal spat with the Malfoy heir. Wordlessly, Draco stormed past her and back into the Great Hall. Hermione shivered at the chilly breeze of his movement and waited for a while before she too turned back into the Great Hall.

"It's okay, Hermione, he's just a brat," she chanted to herself repeatedly until she reached the entrance of the Great Hall. "He's just a spoilt brat. You've handled Ron, this is nothing."

By the time she re-entered the Great Hall, Draco was in the midst of shoving a grim-looking Ravenclaw student behind Emile McMillan, while the other students were dividing themselves into rows of three albeit looking on distastefully at the former Slytherin prince. Dean and Neville were standing at the side not too far off, the former naturally giving Draco a reproachful look of utter disgust and annoyance. Hermione crept towards them and asked Neville curiously, "What's Malfoy doing?"

Neville never took his wide eyes off the Malfoy heir, who was now roughly asking a housemate something. "I don't know, he just stormed in and started getting them to divide themselves into rows."

Hermione furiously marched up to the blond boy. "What do you think you're doing, Malfoy?" she demanded.

"Getting them to get in line," Draco replied dismissively. He turned to a boy cradling a broken arm who was trying to sneak behind a Hufflepuff twice his size. "Oi, you! I told you that broken arms go on my left! That's for light injuries. Are you daft?"

The look on Hermione's face was now an odd mixture of disbelief and distaste as she looked on to see Draco barking at yet another student for getting their rows mixed up. Maybe he really is a bully, she thought glumly, eyeing the now obviously-annoyed Draco Malfoy. He can't even help them without being foul.

"Oh, stop it!" Hermione butted in exasperatedly, feeling increasingly guilty at the sight of the increasingly resentful injured students. "We'll just tend to them one by one, Malfoy. There's no need to be so horrible towards them!"

Draco sounded as if he hadn't heard her. He pointed out one row after another without looking at her, "Curses and hexes, something broken, and both. There are three of you. I'm sure there's enough wands to go around healing all these -" He was about to call them something unpleasant, but stopped himself and finished with a reluctant polite word, "Students."

"Three of us?" Hermione echoed. "Then what's that you're holding? Skrewt's udders?"

"No, my dear Muggleborn witch. It's a wand," Draco explained patiently, though it was evident to everyone his words were laced with liberal amounts of sting even as he twirled his wand in his hands as a form of demonstration. "And there are three rows. I didn't line them up into three rows so they can waste around and wait for the three of you to heal them. They all have their bloody wands, don't they?"

"Will it kill you to use your wand to heal them alongside us?" Hermione demanded through furious slit eyes.

"No, but I'm sure they would much prefer to be healed by a wand whose owner they can trust," Draco said coolly, turning on his heels to walk away.

"Malfoy, could you please stop being prissy and help us a bit more here?" Hermione pleaded wearily.

"Granger, being prissy is my prerogative," he called out over his shoulders without breaking his stride towards the entrance of the Great Hall. He only paused to fling a bewitched paper aeroplane (for a split second Hermione wondered when he even got his hands on a quill and parchment) towards Hermione, who caught it easily.

Sighing, Hermione unfolded it, and inscribed in Draco Malfoy's neat elegant handwriting,

I'll be with Slughorn in the Potions dungeons. That moron Longbottom has wasted remedy enough for fifty people.

Folding it back and stuffing it into her jeans pocket, Hermione had to grin. What a complicated boy.


End file.
